That day when my plan fell apart (I)

That day when I’d just received another disappointing email from the Chinese university. I’d excitingly opened the email but the excitement was fast replaced by disappointment. Another foggy answer with no real help from the international office. I leaned back towards the chair, looked out of the window while the tears started falling down my cheek.

I’d finished one semester at a Chinese university and my plan was to do one more. I talked to the people in the international office about it pretty early but they told me to come back later. I came back later and I received a document to be signed by another department. The staff in the other department told me that everything was fine and I went traveling for summer vacation.

After coming home to Denmark again, I started to think about my visa application which is always a big mess. Because of this, I contacted the international office again. They had to send me an invitation letter for me to be able to come back to China but then it all went wrong. The girl I talked to told me my name wasn’t anywhere in the system. I send her my student ID card but she told me that I’d finished and wasn’t supposed to come back according to her computer. Right, okay. I swallowed hard and emailed her back, already knowing that this was going to be another China challenge (Not the first one).

The time difference was another problem, especially because I was working during the mornings and when I was off in the afternoon, she would have gone home from work. My frustration grew every day and I called my boyfriend again and again, both disappointed and crying telling him about this long lost situation.

At that time, I was talking to two girls from two different offices at the Chinese university. These girls didn’t communicate with each other, which meant I was caught up in between and in the end I just gave up. I didn’t want to waste more energy on this already screwed up plan. This was too much. I could’ve fought for another month but then I wouldn’t have been able to apply for my visa in time and I would lose both time and money on this disastrous experience. So I stopped.

I cried for a bit and then my parents took me out for an ice cream. My next six-month plan had fallen apart already and the only thing I could do was to get up again and figure something else out. I’d already bought my ticket for China and I was going to Malaysia with my boyfriend as well so I didn’t want to cancel those trips, lose the money and stay in Denmark like my parents advised me to.

3 comments

Is the office of the Chinese university open in August? I’m on vacation in Paris now. If you send me by email the name and the phone number of that university, your full name and your student card (of last semester), and maybe the names of the two girls that you have contacted if you can, I will ring them tomorrow morning to see what’s going on. How much time will you need to apply for a student visa? What you need now is an invitation letter from the university for the visa application, right?

OMG Dear,
It has been too long since we talked, I feel sorry for you that you couldn’t come to China for study. >< But you know what, there is not only one way. I am pretty sure we could find other way around and you could come to China again. Let's cross fingers together! If you want to talk, let's have a skype or even wechat call?